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Ty Cobb baseball card discovery a sports memorabilia gold mine

A set of recently discovered Ty Cobb baseball cards drove up one American family’s worth by seven figures. But they are not the first to come across valuable sports memorabilia in the most unlikely of places.

Card experts say they have verified the legitimacy and seven-figure total value of seven identical Ty Cobb cards from the printing period of 1909-1911.()

A set of recently discovered Ty Cobb baseball cards drove up one American family’s worth by seven figures. But they are not the first to come across valuable sports memorabilia in the most unlikely of places.

Find of a lifetime

The backs of two of the seven Ty Cobb baseball cards that were found in a crumpled paper bag inside a dilapidated house.

Seven identical Cobb cards, printed between 1909 and 1911 and recently found in a paper bag by a family going through its deceased great-grandfather’s dilapidated house, should rake in more than $1 million, according to reports. Before the find, only 15 such cards were known to exist. Joe Orlando, president of Professional Sports Authenticator in Newport Beach, Calif., called the find by the family — which is choosing to remain anonymous but hails from the southern United States — one of the greatest discoveries in the history of the hobby.

Special stick

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Mark O’Connell, of Beaverton, Ont., and his brother discovered a 140-year-old 41-inch hardwood stick in an old cottage. O'Connell had the opportunity to show the stick to Penguins star Sidney Crosby back in 2014. (Supplied photo)

Mark O’Connell, of Beaverton, Ont., and his brother discovered the 140-year-old 41-inch hardwood stick in an old cottage. For a while, his son used it playing street hockey. O’Connell only realized the stick’s potential significance and value after reading a newspaper article about another man who owned a stick from the mid-1800s which was appraised at $4.25 million. That stick was eventually sold at auction for $2.2 million and then donated to the Hockey Hall of Fame. O’Connell told the Star in 2014 he was selling the stick and hoped he could fetch a similar price.

Shoebox medals

John Konrads, centre, at the Olympic Games in Rome in 1960. The medals he won at the games were stolen in 1985 and didn't turn up until 2009.

Olympic swimmer John Konrads thought his medals — one gold and two bronze earned while representing Australia at the 1960 Rome Olympics — were long gone when they turned up in a shoebox in Geelong, Australia, in 2009. They had been stolen from his home in 1985. But according to the Sydney Morning Herald, police tracked down those medals, along with three golds Konrads won at the 1958 Cardiff Empire Games, when they were listed for sale on eBay by a woman who bought them at a garage sale for $200 about a decade earlier. The medal collection was worth an estimated $100,000 at the time.

Football find

This 1894 baseball card is the rarest in existence. (Kathy Willens)

A family from Charlotte, Mich., found what experts called the “Holy Grail” of football cards, the rarest in existence, in an old farmhouse. The Daily Mail reported in 2012 the family almost threw away the 1894 card of Harvard University player John Dunlop, which was discovered in a notebook full of 36 vintage football and boxing cards. Dunlop won four varsity letters while at Harvard and later became an assistant coach; there are nine authentic copies of the card in existence. At the time, the card’s value was estimated at $15,000.

Black Swamp Find

Karl Kissner found this Hans Wagner baseball card as he was going through his grandfather's attic. The card was among a collection worth about $3 million.

The Black Swamp Find came about in 2012, when Karl Kissner was going through his grandfather’s attic and found a green cardboard box containing 700 baseball cards, the Toledo Blade reported. The family, from Defiance, Ohio, reportedly almost threw out the cards. In near mint condition, the find included baseball legends Cobb, Cy Young and Connie Mack and is estimated to be worth $3 million. Later than year, 37 of the cards were sold for $566,132. The family planned to split its earnings evenly among 20 cousins.

With files from Allan Woods

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